Numerical analysis and validation on the phased evacuation time in high-rise buildings

Abstract

The main aim of this study is to investigate the numerical analysis of phased evacuation and validate the feasibility of high-rise buildings using the control volume model. Based on the same spatial configuration, the number of participants on each floor, and four-phased evacuations of an actual fire drill conducted by a Japanese academic group in 2018, the numerical analysis results for these phased evacuations of this high-rise building have been investigated. The numerical results are in good agreement with the fire drill data in the aspects of the total number of people reaching the ground floor, the space-time feature curve and the first participant on each floor descending to the ground floor. The changes in the number of waiting participants versus time on each floor were obtained and compared in this study with the fire drill data to comprehend the transient situations of the internal participants in this high-rise building during the phased evacuation. Furthermore, the results of the first-order approximation method of NFPA, the Melinek and Booth method and the Route B calculation of the Japanese Building Center Verification Method for the total building evacuation are presented to discuss the differences between the phased evacuation and the total building evacuation.